Understanding the Nature of Ethics, Values, and Purposes ...

Understanding the Nature of Ethics, Values, and Purposes of Business, Health Care and Law: Implications and Applications for

Community Sport

David Cruise Malloy, Ph.D., Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies, University of Regina

The interest in ethics is certainly not new. Socrates was perhaps the first to approach this topic with vigour 2,500 years ago when he questioned whether the unexamined life was worth living. However, despite its longevity, the fundamental ethical question, What should I do?, is still left unanswered in a definitive way. While religious perspectives clearly state the fundamental nature and purpose of our intended behaviour as humans, the philosophical view tends to be a more complex shade of ethical grey. The perception of ethics in sport is equally ambiguous.

is among the most important (Decima, 2002). This particular goal has come under considerable scrutiny in recent years as unethical conduct by athletes, coaches, and administrators have made worldwide headlines. The initial response from Canada was the now famous Dubin Inquiry in which sport was deemed to be in a "state of moral crisis". The outcome of the Dubin Inquiry and other international initiatives (e.g., the World Anti-Doping Agency) was a heightened awareness of unethical behaviour in sport and a desire to reverse what seemed to be an unfortunate trend.

The net that is cast by the term sport is immense. Depending upon the context, it is perceived to be a means to profit financially, a source of entertainment, a medium for fitness, an avenue for social interaction and intervention, a tool to promote patriotism, personal development or simply as the natural and impulsive act of play. Despite the many sub-sectors of sport that are diverse and often mutually exclusive, the common link with each is that sport is a vehicle toward something (e.g., profit, friends, health). Of the many outcomes that we perceive sport to foster, moral character

The dominant strategy to improve the state of ethics in sport has been thus far to combat the use of banned performanceenhancing substances at the elite level. While this is important work, it addresses a symptom - not a cause. The cause of any behaviour is a result of values, purposes, and ethical knowledge or ignorance. These three components and their interrelation have received relatively little attention in the debate to improve the state of sport. This is curious because in other sectors (e.g., business, health, and law) the role of ethics has been much more thoroughly examined.

The Sport We Want 59

The study and application of ethics has

detailed discussion). Means-oriented ethics

created a variety of approaches to the basic

focuses on the principles upon which we

questions of what should I do, what do I value,

base our behaviour. Rules, policies,

and why do I value it? These varied

commandments, and codes of

approaches are a function of the multitude

ethics/conduct form the parameters of our

of purposes and values of the many sectors

actions (e.g., the Code of Ethics for the

of our society. Despite the differences in the

Coaching Association of Canada). From

mandates of these sectors and the resulting

this perspective the outcome of our

approaches to ethical behaviour, there may

behaviour is less important than how we

be some strategies that are relevant to the

behave. In contrast, ends-oriented ethics

community sport context that could

emphasizes the consequences of action: the

enhance ethical and value-based behaviour.

manner in which we perform the action and

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the strategies that other sectors, active in ethical initiatives (e.g., business), have used

our intentions are of secondary importance. The ethical ends justify the means in this approach.

to develop and enhance ethical conduct

will be identified and discussed. Once this survey is complete, an analysis of the relevance of these strategies will be

Ethics: What should I do? What do I choose? How should I live?

carried out to determine to what extent they can be incorporated into the realm of community sport. This analysis will include an exploration of the values and purposes of each sector, with the focus

Values: Why do I do what I do?

Core Intended Adopted

Weak Instrumental/Terminal

on practical considerations.

What We Ought to do and Why We Do It?

Behaviour: The product of what I should do and what I am

motivated to do.

Figure 1: The role of ethics and values in behaviour

While these two perspectives generally

Ethics

provide the basics in ethical theory, a third

Ethics provides us with the tools to determine whether or not we should do a certain action and the extent to which a past action should have been done (Figure 1). While there are many different approaches to the question, What should I do?, it is possible to simplify matters by discussing ethics in terms of means versus ends orientation (see Appendix A for a more

approach can be considered when making ethical choices. This approach is geared toward the individual being capable of making decisions based upon free will and being fully responsible for the outcomes of each and every choice for all people concerned. Personal authenticity and nonconformity are the watchwords for this ethical view. An individual adopting this

60 Understanding the Nature of Ethics, Values and Purposes

ethical stance cannot rely on societal or organizational rules or norms to make choices ? all decisions are made based upon one's genuine belief in what is good in each situation.

Values

While ethics tells us what we ought to do, it does not explain why we do it. The study of values can assist us in this. Values can be defined as concepts of the desirable with a motivating force. In other words, values somehow move us to act in a particular way. If a value does not cause one to act, then it can be concluded that value is not valued. For example, if a coach says that he/she values fair play and demonstrates this in practice and competition, then it is truly valued. However, if the coach cheats, then the value of fair play is, in fact, not valued.

Another way of looking at the concept of value is to determine the extent to which it is instrumental to another value or terminal in itself. For example, a person may value jogging because it leads to a healthy body; another may value it simply for its own sake with no ulterior motive. The former views jogging as an instrumental value; the latter views it terminally. Clarifying the instrumental and terminal values of sport is critical if we are to know how to set policy

and strategic direction. If sport is itself a terminal value then the implications for its influence on moral development and character building, for example, need not concern us and effort needs only to be placed on the technical components of the required skill-set. If, however, sport is perceived as an instrumental value, then what is it that sport leads to and how do we ensure that this occurs?

Purpose

Purpose refers to what the organization intends to do. Purpose clarifies organizational behaviour individually and collectively, and is based upon what the organization values, instrumentally and terminally. The purpose of a school is to teach because education is valued; the purpose of business is to make a profit because economic wealth is valued and so on. Understanding the value behind the purpose is fundamental if one wants to set any strategic direction. Without this information, an organization is adrift and will move in the direction of each and every wave.

If we wish to take control of our own fate and explicitly set a direction, we need to firmly establish the values and purposes of community sport (Figure 2).

Values: What does my sector value and

why is it valued? What are the

instrumental values? (e.g., efficiency,

effectiveness, productivity) What are the

terminal values? (e.g., economic wealth)

Purpose: What is the purpose of

this sector? (e.g., to make a profit)

Figure 2: Relation between values, purpose, and ethics

Ethics: How should I behave? Are the means, ends, and choices of this sector's values and purposes ethical? (e.g., to abide by the law and

professional and organisational codes)

The Sport We Want 61

Cross-Sector Strategies for Ethics and Values: What is Everyone Else Doing and Why?

In this section what other sectors are doing to develop and enhance their ethical environment will be explored. The sectors to be considered are rather broad in scope; however, this discussion will provide a sense of what is being done, how effective these strategies are, as well as the extent to which these strategies have become part of the institutional structure within these sectors. For the purposes of this paper, the following sectors, whose efforts to develop ethical conduct and decision-making are well documented, will be considered:

Business;

Health Care; and

Law.

For each of these sectors, the purpose, values, and specific ethical strategies will be investigated. Regardless of the sector, there are generally three formal means by which ethical behaviour is encouraged: they are codes of ethics, models of ethical decisionmaking, and ethics education.

Codes provide a variety of functions for a profession. The most obvious function is to set internal guidelines for individual behaviour. Dean (1992) suggests that "codes are meant to translate the more formal philosophical theories of ethics into a set of guidelines that can be applied to the day-to-day decision making" (p. 285). Codes also serve as a mechanism to inform the public of the profession's intent to be

ethical and to warrant the trust of the patient/client/public. Codes function to make individuals aware of their ethical duty to their profession and the stakeholders to whom they are responsible (Somers, 2001; Valentine and Fleischman, 2002).

Models of ethical decision-making provide more specific guidance for individuals when confronted with ethical dilemmas. While most models attempt to incorporate professional duty as a variable in the decision-making, this is only one variable in the process (e.g., Au and Wong, 2000; Malloy, Ross, and Zakus, 2003). Examples of other variables include the perceived importance of outcomes of a particular behaviour, organizational culture, and the degree of social agreement with a course of action.

Ethics education is a common means through which ethical behaviour is presented and encouraged in each of these sectors. However, the existence, form, and content vary dramatically.

Business

The purpose of business is to make profit for owners/shareholders. This purpose is based upon the terminal value (for the business sector) of seeking economic wealth. Instrumental values for this sector would include efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity ? all of which lead to the terminal value of economic wealth. As a result of the focus on these values, behaviour in this sector is predominantly outcome-oriented. This emphasis on the outcome of business activity (i.e., profit) has

62 Understanding the Nature of Ethics, Values and Purposes

been a chronic concern and source of scepticism by clients in particular and the public in general (e.g., the recent Enron scandal). The response from the business community (including the business academics and consultants) has been to place more emphasis on the ethical means to profit and downplay the profit-at-all-cost mentality prevalent in much of the business community. This emphasis has taken the form of two strategies: codes of ethics and decision-making models. Recent research suggests that over 85% of businesses in Canada have an ethical code of some form (Schwartz, 2002).

While codes of ethics appear to be rather prevalent, the extent to which they are effective is a continuing debate in the business ethics literature. For example, Brief, Dukerich, Brown, and Brett (1996) found that codes of ethics do not reduce the likelihood of unethical behaviour in a

without "teeth" and operate as guides for behaviour only.

Unlike the other sectors, business has shown great interest in the development of decision-making models to assist individuals to make better ethical choices. These models take on one of three themes in their design. The first type considers the process or the stages one must go through to make an ethical decision. An example of this is application of Rest's model (1986) in which the decision maker is to consider the following four components: 1) recognition of the problem, 2) judgement (is it ethically charged), 3) intention (to make or not make an ethical choice), and 4) behaviour (the actual action taken as a result of steps 1-3). Models that focus on the process are important and offer solid guidance regarding the actual stages of decisionmaking; however, they do not address the multitude of factors that influence the

process.

Economic Wealth (Terminal Value)

Profit (Purpose)

Ends-Oriented Ethics Codes (Ethical Strategy)

The second type of decision

model focuses exclusively on the

corporate context. McCabe, Trevino, and

variables of ethical choices yet does not

Butterfield (1996) demonstrated that the

address specifically the process to be

very existence of a code of ethics was

followed (e.g., Hitt, 1990). The variables

associated with lower levels of self-reported

that these models address include the

unethical behaviour. One of the major

decision-maker's own values and

drawbacks of the use of ethical codes in this

environment, and the macro variables of the

sector is the lack of professional sanctions

economy, politics, technology, and society.

for those that do act unethically. There is a

Theorists contend that the knowledge of

sense of acting as a "professional" in this

these variables will enable the individual to

sector, however, there is not general

have a better sense of the overall

certification and no enforceable code

circumstances in which the decision is being

outside the specific organisation other than

made and therefore come to a better

what is limited to the code of domestic and

decision for all involved.

international law. As a result, codes function

The Sport We Want 63

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download